Interesting articles

01/12/2015 – This Report produced for the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union focuses on the social dimension of the European Semester. It reviews developments in the 2015 European Semester and provides recommendations about ways of further strengthening its social dimension, including as regards broader social stakeholder participation. It also discusses recent more ambitious proposals for restructuring the European Semester.

19/06/2015, Euractiv, Open Editorial by Jana Hainsworth, President of the Social Platform, addressing Commissioner Frans Timmermans. “As poverty and inequalities worsen in the European Union, Frans Timmermans needs to nurture the debate between European decision-makers and civil society, not criticise the intentions and effectiveness of the latter”, writes Jana Hainsworth.

EPSU, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, has been running the No Tax Fraud Campaign http://www.notaxfraud.eu/ to fight the tax gap in Europe estimated at € 1000 bn per year (Study by UK expert Richard Murphy for the S&D), as part of the alternatives to EU-coordinated austerity. EPSU believes that it is essential to tackle tax evasion and corporate tax avoidance and ensure that governments are able to collect the levels of the tax that have been democratically agreed to finance public services and redistribute wealth and income.

02 February 2015 – Today, the EU Alliance for a democratic, social and sustainable European Semester or (EU Semester Alliance) releases A Beating Heart for a Better Europe. This video highlights the main activities, benefits and learning of the EU Semester Alliance, particularly incorporating the views of the national level and external stakeholders.

The European Semester of policy coordination, which is the core of EU’s new institutional architecture for economic and social governance, introduced since the beginning of the Euro crisis, has prompted questions about the nature and dynamics of the EU’s emerging socio-economic governance architecture. In this report, which refers several times to the EU Semester Alliance, Jonathan Zeitlin and Bart Vanhercke argue that since 2011, there has been a partial but progressive ‘socialization’ of the European Semester. Continue Reading

25/11/2014 – The resolution promoted by Marita Ulvskog acting chair of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, was adopted in plenary by a good majority. It includes some important commitments promoted by EAPN and the Semester Alliance: including the need for benefits to be spread throughout society, on access for the most vulnerable to social security and the labour market, on civil society involvement, on the job potential of the green economy & on IMF, demand for quality jobs and ILO warnings on the risks of growing inequalities. Continue Reading